The topic of ‘landscape’ in contemporary photography encompasses a variety of meanings, extending beyond traditional depictions of the natural environment. While it includes picturesque representations reminiscent of early English landscape painting, it also embraces urban environments, industrial sites, and locations marked by trauma and crime. Contemporary landscape photography features a broad spectrum, from idyllic natural scenes to stark urban imagery, tourist snapshots, and even Google Maps representations.
However, this body of work is less about the landscapes themselves and more about ‘place’ and the historical, political, and traumatic events associated with these sites. The photographs aim to highlight the violence of the frontier wars between the British military, settlers, and Indigenous peoples during colonisation. They seek to challenge the misleading narrative that presents British displacement of Aboriginal Nations as a peaceful transition. Australian history often overlooks the violent resistance from Indigenous communities, the internment of families in missions, and numerous massacres across the country.
Each photograph is tied to a traumatic event from Australia’s colonial past, fostering connections between place, memory, history, and identity. The work presents a contemporary perspective linked to historical realities, contributing to a national narrative through visual storytelling. Locations are chosen based on reports of incidents, with photography conducted using a pinhole large format film camera that evokes a sense of history through its soft focus. The sense of movement in these images serves as a metaphor for time. Titled Out of the Shadows, the series aims to illuminate truths about colonial violence, fostering a collective consciousness necessary for reconciliation and a more accurate historical narrative.
